This invention relates to a card connector to be used in a personal computer or the like for connecting and disconnecting a card to the personal computer. Here, the card generally refers to a memory card such as personal computer (PC) card or the like.
A conventional card connector has an insulator body supporting contact elements. The insulator body has two arms frontward extending in parallel with each other to form a space therebetween. The card connector further has two shield plates of stainless steel fixed to the insulator body to cover the space, so that a card receiving slot is provided. The shield plates define an upper wall and a lower wall of the card receiving slot. The shield plates have outer sides extending onto outer side surfaces of the arms. The shield plates are for protecting the card in the card receiving slot from ambient electromagnetic noise or the electromagnetic interference (EMI).
The card connector further has an ejector also mounted thereon for ejecting the card loaded in the connector. The ejector includes a metallic eject bar which is mounted on one of the outer sides of the shield plates to be slidable in frontward and rearward, an eject button fixed to a front end of the eject bar, and a lever mechanism linked to a rear end of the eject bar and mounted on the insulator body to frontward push out the card from the connector body when the eject bar is pushed rearward through the eject button.
In the conventional card connector, the metallic eject bar is held by the outer side of the metallic shield plate. Therefore, those metallic parts slide relative to each other in such a condition that they are in contact with each other, so that operation of the eject bar is accompanied with uncomfortable feeling.
Further, the shield plates made of stainless steel are heavy and therefore degrade portability of a personal computer having the conventional card connector. Further, the shield plates capture heat produced from the card operating in the card receiving slot. Therefore, the card may be destroyed by the heat.